TIK TOK TIME IS RUNNING OUT
There was a day when children proudly stood up with their hand over their heart and recited the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag, which was splendidly displayed in the front of the classroom. There was a time when college education was the golden ring that most parents wanted for their children and saved and often scrimped to provide this. But sadly, beginning in grade school and exploding in college, students have been taught about our national failings, producing guilt and shame, but not enough about American ideals, heroes, and aspirations. Our national statues and buildings have been torn down, and the heroes erased. The Left, the progressives, want Socialism to change our heritage and they hate conservatives for preserving the past. An earlier generation took pride fighting against fascism and defeating communism without boots on the ground. The Left wants change, excitement, and no mention of the ideals that made our country great. They want only a global community. Where did this thinking come from? Why is there no national pride?
Who influenced them and those who are now teaching our children? Who is influencing our college students, millennials, and generation Z? As Dennis Prager stated, “When you don’t conserve the ideas and art, the religious moral values, and even the nuclear family that made Western civilization the most advanced civilization, materially, morally, scientifically and artistically, you will no longer have that civilization.”
We are fighting an invisible war, and our God given rights are being eroded. Many American universities reported receiving one billion dollars from China, including Harvard who was given one billion. China-based entities, including the Chinese government, secured $120 million in contracts with American colleges in 2021, federal data reveals. “China’s ultimate goal is to control education,” said North Carolina congresswoman, Virginia Fox. “And once you control education, you control a culture,” she added. “They want to gain influence and spread propaganda into the universities.” How many parents can no longer communicate with their college educated children? There is a huge patriotism gap between older and younger Americans. In a recent poll, only 52 percent of millennials and 58 percent of Generation Z said they were proud to be an American. Is it any wonder, with guilt and shame taught along with vetoing American ideals that made our country great?
The question of national pride is not only controlled by our universities, but social media and gaming. Chinese tech giants are seizing gaming studios around the world. Tik Tok, a social media developed and owned by a Chinese company, is banned in China, but huge in America. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claims user data is sent to China. “It’s not possible to have your personal information flow across a Chinese server,” he warned during a British media interview, “without that data ending up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” This social media giant not only collects troves of personal data on users, but also cooperates with the CCP, extending China’s surveillance and censorship reach beyond its borders..
The new TikTok trend is mental illness, and our kids are diagnosing themselves. Their concepts can go from fringe to trendy overnight. The algorithms promote gender altering as cool, modern and it goes viral. They censor political speech, the unattractive, the poor and undesirables. Over one billion users in 143 countries use Tik Tok hours a day. They want their influencers to appear young, beautiful, bright, and exciting, scorning conservative ideas.
A 2021 Lawfare Project revealed that nearly 60% of parents did not know that China and other countries are major funders of colleges. They were also unaware of the eighty Confucius Institutes in the United States, (523 worldwide) a form of “soft power” by the Chinese government in which it spends approximately $10 billion a year on CIs and related programs to exercise these initiatives. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Xi Jinping in 2013 stated that the intentions are to “give a good Chinese narrative.” Being affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, CIs have received increasing skepticism over its censorship of content taught, such as topics related to individual freedoms and democracy, Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. The agreement with the universities gives China the power to VETO what they teach. Professors must carefully watch what they say. The 90 million members of the Chinese Communist Party will not allow the Seven Don’t Speaks, universal ideas, freedom of speech, civil society, historical errors of the CCP and more.
In 1949, Atheism was declared China’s belief system, and In April 2021, Radio Free Asia reported, “Authorities in China are detaining Christians in secretive, mobile ‘transformation’ facilities to make them renounce their faith. Atheism is the “religion” of China and Christians are being persecuted and Bibles are banned from being sold online. Young Americans are leaving the church at an alarming rate, 66%, according to one study by Lifeway. Why? Their answers: “Learning about evolution in college,” “Religion is an opiate,” “I’m doing a lot more learning, studying, making decisions myself,” “Rational thought makes religion go out the window.” Parents are viewed as old fashioned and uninformed, and the nuclear family is becoming a thing of the past.
In addition, Wanda, a real estate and entertainment conglomerate owned by China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin, paid $2.6 billion for AMC Entertainment in 2012, the parent of AMC Theatres, the second-largest theater chain in the U.S. and spent $1 billion to acquire the producer of the Golden Globes, American Music Awards and ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.’ Chinese firms have accumulated a considerable portfolio of media and entertainment-related companies, appealing to the younger generations.
We cannot lose another generation. Freedom, liberty, equality, and independence are America’s most important values, and we must reach our youth in empathy and love with these principles and ideals. They need to understand Socialism is the collective ownership and management of property without free speech. Parents being aware of China’s influence is a start.